Last Moments
by Triskell
Summary: Conor and Catlin spend the night before their last battle with each other. (Catlin's point of view)


Disclaimer: The characters of Roar are the copyright property of Ron Koslow and Shaun Cassidy. No copyright infringement is intended.

THIS STORY IS RATED R! It contains strong allusions to mature themes.  
  
This is the story behind the poem "The Night before the last Battle" (© Triskell, 2000), as told by Catlin.

**LAST MOMENTS**  
© Triskell, 25 April 2000

  
(Catlin)  
  
It was a dreary day. Even the skies seemed to know of our impending doom and brushed their grey clouds across the sun, obscuring the light of a hope we dared not entertain anymore. The next day would see the final battle. All our years of fighting, all our sacrifices, every man and woman we had lost, everything we had done would culminate in this one day - victory or defeat…they lay close together.  
  
We were calm, sitting around our campfire. We had said our prayers, made our peace with the Gods and ourselves. Now we waited for dawn to come - the dawn that would bring with it the final decision - and the last call of our fate. We all stood on the threshold of death. None of us might make it, chances were against us. But even though so much depended on us, on the outcome of the battle on the morrow, we were not afraid.  
  
We had had our share of worry, of toil and we had been frightened, lost and hopeless…whatever would come our way now - we were prepared, we had seen it all. In the silence we shared lay our quiet, heartfelt goodbyes. We did not need to speak, our hearts and souls had found a communication along the link we shared in our will to live that united us in the Roar we heard rising from deep within the earth of our country.  
  
All around us, the camp was already asleep, and it was not long before Tully and Molly left us to seek their privacy. Fergus was gone as well fairly soon, striding silently around among the sleeping folk, as if protecting them against the inevitable downfall that awaited them.  
  
~*~  
  
I followed Conor when he stood up, crossing the camp to the far side, where he had made his bed in the shelter of a small copse of trees. We walked quietly, neither of us saying a word. The closeness we had shared in these last years made it impossible for us to part as if we had never felt the irresistible pull that drew us towards each other.  
  
It was not merely the physical sensations, or the bodily contact that we craved; it was this bond we had, this knowledge that we were each other's destiny and that our fate's were inseparably entwined, even in death that led to this unspoken decision of ours to share this night with each other.  
  
We sat on Conor's cloak for a while, the trees shading us from eyes that were closed in sleep as our lips touched for the first time. Somehow I had always known what my lover would taste like, how our silent dance together would begin…and how it would end.  
  
We were safe in the lonely night, the chill of the air could not creep into our bones because our hands were everywhere, warming, caressing every inch of our bodies.   
  
Conor's lips traced a soft line across my throat to my shoulder, while he slowly and carefully divested me of my clothes. I sank to the ground, his breath like hot silk on my skin and pulled him on top of me. His vest disappeared like magic and I let my hands wander over his arms and back, stroking his curly head as it began its journey of discovery along my chest, stomach and thighs.  
  
I kept my eyes open, watched the moon changing into a living being in breathless fascination while my lover traced the outlines, planes and hollows of my body with his hands and lips. The tingling sensations crept up my spine, igniting a warmth and fire inside me that threatened to consume me, yet I knew that Conor would not be the only one doing the exploring that night…  
  
I managed to disentangle myself from his tender grasp, sliding against him and rolling us over. In the milky haze of the moonlight I saw his eyes shining, briefly, in surprise, then I took his lips, claiming him as my prize. I became a hunter searching for prey as I let my hands travel across his body at will, smiling when his breathing grew heavier. His trousers ended up somewhere beside us; and his low, short gasps and moans spurred me on in my ministrations.  
  
Though neither of us had joined in this dance before, our instincts and the tales we had heard told around the fire led us to what we sought, and I savoured the warmth of my lover's skin on mine when our bodies joined, and the whispering sound of our heart beats mingled in the silence of the clear, starlit night.  
  
Our passion reached its peak almost too soon and still it was quiet around us; our breathing, though irregular and laboured could not breach the peaceful solitude that had descended to give us these moments of bliss to share and remember throughout the greatest of our toils that we would have to face on the morrow.  
  
We fell asleep in each other's arms, sated in the aftermath of our fulfilled longing, safe in our mutual affection; our love a cocoon that had withstood the pain of all that we had endured in the past years. It was the closest to utter happiness I have ever come, feeling Conor's hands languidly caressing my thighs and softly kissing me time and again.  
  
~*~  
  
I woke to tender kisses on my neck, warm lips travelling across my face to settle on my own, waking me with the achingly sweet memory of the pleasure I had experienced the night before in my lover's arms.  
  
"It's time." Conor whispered against my ear and I nodded, stroking his cheek once more, briefly resting my hand upon his heart, feeling the steady beat that had become so intimately familiar to me.  
  
We dressed in silence while the sun rose, shading the land with a bloody hue that reverberated through our bodies, leading us to tremble in the face of this, our last chance, our last battle with fate, the last possibility to win our freedom.  
  
~*~  
  
We stood silently, facing the huge army that appeared out of the morning mists when the first reddish sunrays touched upon the hills that shone in their lush green mantle, as if the land whose Roar filled our hearts wanted to bid us farewell in all its glory before it fell to the hands of the invaders.  
  
We had no hope of victory anymore, seeing the masses of superiorly equipped Roman soldiers march towards us, halting and waiting, as if offering us the courtesy to make the first step towards our doom. Our ragged band, comprising every available men from those clans that had chosen to follow our example, was dwarfed by the sheer magnitude of the forces we faced.  
  
Conor moved to stand before us then, encompassing all of our companions in his gaze. He did not have to raise his voice, for every noise was hushed as he spoke and his words echoed across the hills, carried on the breeze, finding their way into our hearts and strengthening our souls.  
  
"Today's the final confrontation! Whatever may come, I'm proud to stand here, to fight by your side and I will not let them take me down without the toughest battle they've ever fought!"  
  
"For our country - with our lives!" Fergus' voice rose from beside me, echoed by our band and our thundering cry ignited the fire of pride in every one of us.  
  
We knew that this was our last battle, that this was the end of our fight and yet we flung ourselves at the Romans, stamped their resistance into the soil, took them down with us and those of our band that fell, soaked our land with their blood, a sacrifice for the lives of the generations yet to come.  
  
I was always at Conor's side, our blades slashing down on our opponents in a seemingly endless flurry of blows, broken now and then by quick parries and swift steps to evade a deadly thrust.  
  
My thoughts were focused on taking down as many men as I could, I was fighting to breathe, to survive and there was barely a moment when I drew enough air into my burning lungs. My movements grew slower as the day neared its end, for there had been no rest, no moment of respite for either us or the Romans.  
  
Our fate was sealed, however, when dusk fell, for though we had fought with a strength beyond all we had thought we were capable of, we had lost too many men to face up to our enemies' numbers.  
  
In the red golden hue of twilight laced with the last rays of the dying sun we moved together, guarding each other's backs, though we knew we had lost. I saw Fergus, barely keeping himself upright, bleeding from a deep wound in his chest; Molly, standing close to Tully, softly touching his hand, their faces tired and drawn; and Conor, whose warmth had never left me, whose body had shielded mine as I had protected him.   
  
I met my lover's eyes once more - a clash of brown and blue, of earth and sky, a promise of eternity in our gaze, dyed with bloody streaks in the remnants of the sun that set silently, tingeing the hills in the ghastly hue of death…  
  
The Romans surrounded us, leering at us, sure of their victory. And we stood, proud, defying them even with our last breaths to rise once more, and fling ourselves at them, our swords held high and our Roar - one voice - echoing in the sunsets when our fate was sealed…  
  
A blade slashed against my chest…intense pain…blackness…and I fell. My last conscious thought was for my lover whose bloody fingers closed around mine for one last time, lying at my side, our souls joining the Roar that enveloped us and took us towards the stillness of the life beyond…  
  
  
The End.  
  
  
*NOTE*  
  
After Julius Caesar's unsuccessful attempt to conquer Britain in 55 BC, a century passed before the occupation of the isle in 43 AD, which was aided by the bickering among the clans and the better trained army comprising about 40,000 men all in all that the invaders brought with them. But holding the land turned out to be more difficult than the Romans had expected; they built the Hadrian's wall that later became the border between England and Scotland and when their Empire began crumbling, the end of their invasion neared. The last Roman soldiers left the island in 409 AD.  
  
This information was taken from "An Illustrated History of Britain" by David McDowall, Longman Group UK Limited, 8th impression, 1995; pages 8, 9. 


End file.
